kccx: saturday

(photo: Amy) So, I mentioned that Ben pre-rode the course on Friday. I washed the bikes Friday night and left the tuning and cabling for today. Which was maybe not the best decision. The A bike's right shifter was rather shot and it took some genius on the part of Ben's teammate Matt to pump the fire extinguisher up to 50psi with air only and blow the remnants of Portland, Toronto, and Jersey out of the thing. It's working again now (better than it's been for a month), but that process took way longer than it should have. We hadn't packed brake cable or housing, since it hadn't been a problem until, oh, now, but thankfully Matt had packed some. I'm always so damn unprepared. I like to travel light, but I think we need to add that to the packing list.... I think it's time to give up on light and start actually having what we need. Ben says this includes a bullhorn, too.

There were also nasty rumors floating around about enforcement of UCI wheel regulations-- minimum spoke number and max rim depth or UCI approved list. Word was that Planet Bike re-glued all their tires because of this. I walked up to the stage and asked and the officials said they were indeed enforing spoke minimums and depth maximums, which in effect means 90% of the wheels the guys ride aren't legal. I talked to a couple other wrenches and riders about it and they all sort of shrugged it off- chances are even if they do enforce it will be for the front few rows only. Still a pain. I hate that I did go straight to the source and even that answer was insufficient.

Anyway, from our waterpark crew, Mike Hemme and Matt raced today. Both did solidly well but struggled with crappy start position. Which really sucks. SRAM Scott had the same problem- battling back from a crappy start position to break into the top 10.

It was warm and windy and the course was dry and packed enough that guys were riding file tread. Ben's crazy excited to preride on his not-yet-used filetread wheels. We'll see. Weather tomorrow is all over the board - 60 to 14 degrees and a chance of rain.

I talked Ben into playing Dance Dance Revolution with me tonight. Neither of us are good at it. He's an awesome Ms. Pac Man player, though.